London financial history: The rise of money, banks, and markets in the city

When you walk through the City of London, you’re walking over centuries of London financial history, the evolution of money, banking, and trade that turned a medieval port into the global capital of finance. Also known as British financial history, it’s not just about tall buildings and stock tickers—it’s about how a city built on rivers and trade became the engine of an empire and then the world.

At the heart of it all is the Bank of England, the central bank founded in 1694 to fund wars and later to control the nation’s money supply. Also known as The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, it didn’t just print money—it shaped how credit worked, how interest rates moved markets, and how London became the place banks from around the world opened offices to stay close to the center of power. Then came the London Stock Exchange, started in a coffee shop in 1698 where traders gathered to buy and sell shares in ships, colonies, and later railways and factories. Also known as LSE, it wasn’t just a market—it was the first place ordinary people could invest in big business, not just land or gold. These two institutions didn’t just exist—they created the rules, the language, and the systems that still run global finance today.

What you see now—the glass towers of Canary Wharf, the algorithmic trading floors, the fintech startups in Shoreditch—didn’t appear out of nowhere. They grew from the same soil: London’s obsession with trade, its tolerance for risk, and its ability to adapt. The city didn’t just finance the British Empire; it financed the Industrial Revolution, funded global shipping, survived two world wars, and then reinvented itself as the top hub for foreign investment. Even when other cities tried to steal its thunder, London kept coming back because it understood one thing: money flows where it’s trusted.

What you’ll find in the posts below isn’t a textbook. It’s the real, messy, fascinating story of how London became the world’s financial heartbeat—through its markets, its people, its rules, and its mistakes. You’ll see how finance shaped the city’s streets, its buildings, and even its food. No jargon. No fluff. Just the facts that matter.